Dear BERGers,
As some of you may know, the University of Stirling is advertising a number of funded,
interdisciplinary PhD studentships within several different topics or 'clusters'.
Several of BERG staff members are involved in some of these clusters. For example, Sharon,
Clare, Gema and I are involved in the cluster "Nature Emergency - Interdisciplinary
Responses by Active Citizens".
Within this cluster (please see a more detailed description of the potential PhD topics,
as well as a link summarising the cluster, below this email) there is a number of
potential PhD topics related to animal behaviour, human-animal interactions,
conservations, and climate change.
If you are looking for a PhD and are interested in one of these topics, please get in
touch with one of us - we will be happy to provide more details about these studentships
and specific projects. Please also pass this on to anyone that might be interested in
applying.
Best wishes,
Pawel
Natuere Emergency potential PhD topics:
1) Wildlife Response Lab: Response-Making via Human Interactions with Nature
Human-wildlife conflict has been at the centre of major global challenges and disasters,
such as environmental degradation, climate change, and pandemics. Causes of this conflict
include limited scientific knowledge and limited public awareness of how human behaviour
can affect wildlife. The Wildlife Response Lab will address this problem by studying
human-wildlife interactions and by involving students and communities in this research.
Themes will include animal behaviour and cognition, human-animal interactions, and
anthropogenic impacts on animal behaviour, as well as how interacting with wildlife and
participating in research influences people’s attitudes to global challenges. Research
will occur both on and off-campus, using transdisciplinary methodologies (citizen science,
co-design) and cutting-edge technology to monitor wildlife (e.g., camera traps, thermal
imaging). These innovative initiatives will serve dual goals of engaging the community in
research, including data collection, and raising their awareness about, and responsiveness
towards, the Nature Emergency. Supervisors: Pawel Fedurek, Gema Martin-Ordas, Clare
Andrews, Sharon Kessler (FNS Psyc); Elisa Fuentes-Montemayor, Brad Duthie, Jen Dickie (FNS
Biol), Andrew Smith (FAH), David Comerford (SMS)
2) Youth Response Lab: Young People’s Response-Making to the Nature Emergency
Young people will be most affected by current and future impacts of the Nature Emergency.
Youth are often at the forefront of activism, while also suffering feelings of anxiety,
fear, disempowerment, and betrayal. The Youth Response Lab will study the experiences of,
and approaches taken by, young people at multiple scales as responses to the Nature
Emergency. Research will investigate the drivers of eco-anxiety and eco-grief, including
exposure to climate impacts, feelings of betrayal by governments and businesses, and their
impact upon intergenerational relationships. We will examine the role that eco-anxiety
plays in motivating or paralysing individual behaviour change, activism and
community-based responses. We will explore how young people engage with and contribute to
climate and nature-based education, social and mental health services, empowerment via
school-based civic action, school- and university-community linking, intergenerational
eco-action, or social entrepreneurship. This will include developing knowledge of health-
and educational co-benefits of youth response-making, and rights-based understandings of
young people’s views and agencies and intergenerational understandings of rights and
climate justice. Supervisors: Clare Andrews, Sharon Kessler, Gozde Ozakinci (FNS Psyc),
Lena Dominelli, Sandra Engstrom (FoSS Soc), Greg Mannion (FoSS Edu), Tracy Kirk (FAH),
Craig Anderson (SMS)
3) Political Economy Lab: Rights-Based Response-Making in Geopolitical Ecologies
The appropriation of nature into global economic value chains lies at the core of many
aspects of the Nature Emergency. The Political Economy Lab will investigate how the
economic use value of nature – including the resources and ecosystem servicesprovided for
society – intersects with the wider socio-cultural and political dimensions of production
and consumption. Of particular interest are ethical arguments about nature possessing
non-anthropocentric intrinsic value and non-human species having moral interests and
rights. These could increasingly be reflected in decision-making processes, giving due
recognition to both human and non-human realities. It is also important to consider how
uneven processes of development accompanied by the commodification and neoliberalisation
of nature lead to unsustainable use of resources (e.g., water, land, timber, rare
minerals, etc.) and to the marginalisation of both human and animal communities, thus
endangering a sustainable co-existence. This Lab will leverage a combination of social
science and humanities methodologies in local, national, and global settings to explore
divergent ideas of the scale and character of the Nature Emergency and how economics,
politics, and culture shape human responses to it. Supervisors: Hannes Stephan, Clemens
Hoffmann (FAH), Danny Campbell, Craig Anderson, David Comerford (SMS), Brad Duthie (FNS
Biol), Pawel Fedurek, Gema Martin-Ordas (FNS Psyc), Lena Dominelli, Sandra Engstrom
(FoSS)
https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/institute-for-advanced-stu…
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1786 467844<tel:+441786467844>
Twitter: @fedurekp<https://twitter.com/fedurekp>
@BERG_Stirling<https://twitter.com/BERG_Stirling>
Staff page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG
page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/research-groups/behaviour-and-evolution-research-group/>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159